Since the advent of warfare, military leaders have understood the advantage of surprise and confusion. This is clearly evident by the effectiveness and use of snipers, ambushes, sneak attacks, and guerrilla tactics. In addition, military leaders have understood the importance of situational awareness during active combat operation as indicated by the time and resources devoted to combat communication (from the use of flags and trumpets to modern radios) and troop concealment (from the use of smoke, terrain, and camouflage).
The detection, classification, and location of threats is critical to the success of any military operation. Before the advent of modern warfare, military leaders had little access to real-time situational awareness and tactical threat detection beyond the use of scouts and telescopes, and the individual warfighter had no access at all. With the advent of modern warfare came the application of technology to increase situational awareness both before combat (to reduce the effectiveness of enemy snipers, ambushes, and sneak attacks), and during combat (to increase the individual warfighters survivability and effectiveness).
The rapid increase of military technology has brought about the possibility of real-time tactical threat detection and location at the squad level. Examples of some of these emerging technologies include acoustic and infrared shot detection. These electro-optical and acoustic systems have been developed to help triangulate the location of a sniper once they fire. Project Overwatch uses thermal imagers, and new system products, such as Boomerang, use acoustic echolocation to identify the direction and distance of snipers once they fire. These systems greatly improve the speed and effectiveness of sniper response, as friendly forces can protect themselves from the direction of the shooter, and can more quickly identify the shooter location and mount a counterattack. From a counter-sniper perspective, these systems provide significant advantages. Unfortunately, the initial damage done by the shooter is unaffected. The officer, specialist, or materiel still will already have been fired upon by the time these systems are able to assist the tactical warfighter.
Despite the wide-ranging efforts by numerous researchers and product developers including those above, none of the conventional solutions is optimal for identifying and locating enemy combatants in crowded, short-range environments before they are able to attack. Detection sensor technologies help identify the presence of people and weapons, but have difficulty detecting intent to harm. Reaction sensor technologies help identify the location and direction from which an attack was launched, but they provide little value or comfort to the victim. Instead, what forces facing insurgents, snipers, and terrorists desperately need is a sensor technology that can detect the presence and location of a shooter that is poised to strike. This sensor system must then alert the user in a timely manner so that defensive measures can be undertaken and plans for counterattack started before the strike occurs.